What motivates you at work?

LGA's Employee Engagement research into what motivates people and improves performance at work.

Nigel Carruthers, Senior Advisor, LGA

#LGAworkforce Councils have a workforce of some 1.5 million strong, covering over 800 distinct occupations with a pay bill of around £22 billion a year. Contract PRIVATE SNAFU Since 2012, the LGA have worked with local authorities, NHS trusts and healthcare providers to measure workforce performance by looking at the quality of the employment relationship, which is expressed as an exchange of contributions - a dynamic and social exchange process between employer and employee - what we call the ‘deal’. Employee Engagement – A LG journey

• Employee Attitude Surveys – 76% (2006) in 55% EE Survey (2018) • Best Council to Work For (2007-2009) • Thank Goodness its Monday! https://youtu.be/\_9-9A3uM-Yw (2010) • Top Ten Test – for CEOs/Boards 2010 • Engage For Success – Evidence / case studies (2010-2012) • Employee Value Proposition 2012-2016 • TEDD – The Employment Deal Diagnostic 2016… What we know about employee engagement?

**Reduced sickness** - Engaged employees in the UK take an average of 2.69 sick days per year; the disengaged take 6.19. Average in LG is 8.8 days, 40% sickness is long term and a third of all sickness relates to stress and mental health.

**Improved customer service** - 70% of engaged employees indicate they have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs; only 17% of non-engaged employees say the same.

**Retention** - Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the organisation than the disengaged. The cost of high turnover among disengaged employees is significant; some estimates put the cost of replacing each employee at equal to annual salary. There is a 13.4% turnover rate in LG. 1 in 10 councils currently has a recruitment freeze and there is a 9.7% vacancy rate. What we know about employee engagement?

**Advocacy** - 78% of engaged employees would recommend their organisation’s services compared with 13% of the disengaged

**Better performance** - Significant differences in financial performance of organisations with a highly-engaged workforce to their peers with a less-engaged workforce, over a 12 month period. What we know about employee engagement?

Highly Engaged Employees

= High Performance workplaces What we know about employee engagement?

What do you do to engage your team?

Where’s your evidence base that what you do improves performance?

What would motivate you to do a better job? What we know about employee engagement?

TEDD® is characterised as an exchange of contributions between employer and employee. Psychological Contract is a fundamental defining feature of the relationship between an employee and employer. It can be used to understand the extent to which employees feel that their employer is fulfilling their promises and obligations such as terms and conditions, pay and, stimulating work.

Perceived Organisational Support the extent to which employees believe that the organisation values their contributions and wellbeing, and thus feel obliged to reciprocate. What we know about employee engagement?

**Psychological Contract:**

Biggest impact on employee contribution?

- Trust in the organisation
- Role Autonomy
- Trust in the line manager

**Perceived organisational support:**

Biggest impact on employee contribution?

- Supportive organisational culture
- Encouragement to use initiative
- Feeling valued What does “trust in the organisation” look like for you?

For me personally, in comparison to my friends who work within the private sector, I have a better working life, I will have a pension later in life (hopefully), holidays, better protection within the council's policies and procedures.

Pay in not equal, rules for 1 and rules for another. different departments appear to be able to have higher grades for similar roles. You are expected to perform duties far beyond your pay scale and get no thanks for it. What we know about employee engagement?

What does “supportive organisational culture” look like for you?

The most enjoyable part of the role has been having direct access to the corporate director who has shown complete commitment to, and support for the new role. This has enabled me to gain confidence in my own ability to influence and make an impact in my role quickly.

Lack of support when new procedures are implemented- managers seem to introduce new priorities without putting any support, training, and time in place for us. Managers constantly ‘reacting’ rather than planning. To achieve sustainable high performance, you need good quality conversational practices.

Engagement and performance improved when employees were encouraged to speak openly about opportunities and constraints and given the opportunity to improve things.

Negative impact (wellbeing, poor performance, low morale) occurred when:

- People are expected to do more with less
- There is a tension between high quality service versus and the time available
- Personal objectives are out of sink with organisational objectives
- When job pressure was excessive

What we know about employee engagement? What do conversations focused on performance look like for you?

We regularly have discussions about how to improve service delivery. He asks for my input and listens to it, and enables me to challenge the status quo. Most recently this has resulted in improved business planning and a tasking process that allows us to use our resources more efficiently.

Sometimes when suggestions are put forward ... these are often ignored and pushed aside... In the long run, it affects the quality of service we are giving to our customers and eventually leads to poor performance and underachievement. What we know about employee engagement?

Balance of the Deal

Perceived organisational support were lowest for those with >10 years service and for non-managers.

Job engagement, Skills and capability were high.

Organisational engagement (advocacy, loyalty, and a sense of value congruence with the organisation were low).

Overall the balance of the deal in local government favours the employer. Re-orientating towards 21\\textsuperscript{st} Century Public Servant

Data from over approx. 20,000 employees re-orientated to show both statistical and free text links with 21\\textsuperscript{st} Century Public Servant themes:

What did we find? Municipal entrepreneur engages citizens pooling expertise. Recruits & rewards generic skills. Builds fluid careers across sectors and services. Combines PS ethos with commerciality. Rethinks PS to survive at a time of permanent austerity. Fluid and supportive organisations not siloed and controlling. Distributed and collaborative leadership. Rooted in a locality which frames a sense of loyalty and identity. Reflected practice / learning focus. This is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential.

David Macleod

https://engageforsuccess.org/ Nigel.carruthers@local.gov.uk Senior Advisor, Workforce Team, Local Government Association 07766251641